Glaciers are at the frontline of current climate change, as an iconic image of accelerating warming over high altitude sensitive environments. Their role in freshwater availability is determinant in different regions of the world. This will become even more acute under projected warming. Putting such changes into perspective requires a deep understanding of past climate evolution as a possible window in prediction of future climate changes. Mountain glaciers adjust their geometry sensitively to climate on timescales spanning decades to millennia, which makes them a particularly relevant indicator for the reconstruction of past climatic conditions.
The aim of this project is to implement state-of-the-art complementary methods allowing us to investigate glacier-climate during the Holocene period.
To achieve this aim, we will apply:
•    Geomorphological mapping of glacier-related landforms;
•    Dating glacial landforms (moraine features) using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCN) such as Beryllium-10 (10Be);
•    Reconstruct past equilibrium line altitudes (or snowlines) and air temperature anomalies associated with dated and mapped past glacier geometries.
•    Numerical glacier modeling. 
The outcomes of this project will be interdisciplinary in terms of historical, archaeological, and paleo ecological applications, as well as for understanding the spatial-temporal distribution of landscape types, biomes and glacial refugia, and hence the history of biodiversity throughout the Caucasus. All the above listed will also develop and increase the level of knowledge for the next generation of young scientists. This study may also be the basis for future studies of relatively large areas of the Greater Caucasus.